This publication does not refer to the f104A and C, as these two are in fact problematic.
But can someone explain to me how J7D, Mig25, F5FCU, J7E have a br less than or equal to F104S?
This is simply absurd; this plane needs an urgent rework.
This was an extremely fun plane to play before the gaijin, via bug report, destroyed the plane’s flight model.The only F104 models that were truly problematic were the A and C.
The rest of the starfighters are unplayable.
In the case of China (Taiwan), France (Belgium), Germany, and Japan, there are few starfighters, and even then, it’s an interceptor aircraft that can’t fulfill its role; it’s completely unplayable, with miserable Bomber-like gameplay.
The worst thing of all is that Italy has 3 Starfighters in the main line of the TT( four if you count the premium), being the f104S. ASA br 12.0.
This plane needs a complete rework and a drastic reduction in its BR .
Another thing, the F-104S was designed to use the NASARR radar; the “S” stands for “Sparrow-Capable.” It doesn’t need the conversion kit that removes the cannon, and it would already be capable of using the Aspide missile without removing the cannon, both the Italian and Turkish versions.
Napalm meta.
Imo until they do something to that (add level of bases protection, so it can be fully destroyed only with conventional bombs?) the battle rating of Italian F-104s won’t be changed.
For ASA though idk, it’s a Gaijin’s mystery.
My BR proposal would be
10.3 - F-104J, G (CN), and G (ITA) - 2 don’t have flares, and the Italian one only gets 2 9Js
10.7 - F-104Gs - They are 11.0 currently, and not very good
11.0 - F-104S - substantially better than the F-104Gs (why does literally no one mention that they are actually very fast planes???)
11.3 - F-104S ASA - It’s on par with the J-8B.
The F-104S was designed to use the NASARR radar; the “S” stands for “Sparrow-Capable.” It doesn’t need the conversion kit that removes the cannon, and it would already be capable of using the Aspide missile without removing the cannon, both the Italian and Turkish versions.
I don’t know why the Gaijin does that.
It’s not just a reduction in br; this plane actually needs a rework too .
He’s an interceptor who can’t be an interceptor, and needs to play as a bomber, but he’s not a bomber and is worse than all the bombers and attack planes in the game.
Why would you use the F104S if the Tornado IDS is better?
Why would you use the F104 if the Kfir is faster, bombing bases, and is still a useful fighter in combat? And the Kefir is still overbr (it should be 10.7).
He’s a pointless fighter jet within the game.
The 104S is one of the fastest planes to reach a base, and it will beat nearly anything else.
I’d rather be in an F-104S.
I don’t disagree, but lowering the BRs will balance them.
Nope, there were literally two configurations of F-104S: CBO (Cacciabombardiere ognitempo) - fighter-bomber (with Vulcan, radar altimeter and ground ordnance) and CIO (Caccia intercettore ognitempo) - interceptor (with Vulcan removed, able to operate Sparrows/Aspide). There is no information in AFM or any other sources that S or even ASA could use both Vulcan and SARH missiles.
Again napalm meta.
Tornado is fast, but heavy bombs slow it down by a lot, if Tornado had napalm it would be way better, but it doesn’t. Hell, I recently tried to complete “destroy 6 bases” task in Tornado and it’s a pain because every fighter, even MiG-29s! brings napalm and rush to bases, in most battles at the time you arrive to bases, they are already destroyed.
And it isn’t only Tornado problem.
Tbh, i think the 104 asa test carried the arh aspide, if so, give it that missile and keep it at 12.0 if not 11.3 would be a ok br for it.
Also, the f5c got flares bc the chinese f5as had flares, by that logic the japanese and chinese 104 should get the flare pods the other 104s can carry
Incorrect, the 104S and 104S-ASA did require the removal of the cannon in order to accommodate the Sparrow/Aspide. Gaijin are correct in implementing this limitation. I believe the ASA/M could mount the cannon and still operate Sparrow/Aspide, I’ll need to look that up to confirm, purely academic though since we don’t actually have an ASA/M in game. For the Turkish one there’s an argument that they shouldn’t get the Sparrow or Aspide at all since the TuAF generally reserved these missiles for their F-4’s.
This point aside though I’d agree with you… they’re utterly useless. Even when I try using it as a base bomber I tend to find MiG-23’s race in and “napalm-ski” them before I can get there.
Afaik ASA-M was only in interceptor configuration, btw manual mentions AIM-9L/I amd AIM-9L/I-1, so it’s still worth to add.
The ASA/M did not add any weapons capability, it was focused on reliability and service life upgrades. It has the same capabilities as the regular ASA.
IRCCM would be huge for the ASA, would help it a lot and make the bad FM worth it. Fly fast and sling missiles
Tbh, it kind works well enough already. As long stay fast, refrain from the initial furball and remain disciplined enough to not turn with anything you’re usually fine.
Last time I flew it I got a Mirage 2000 and an F-16, almost bagged an F/A-18 as well but someone else got the shot in first. It’s also really handy for dealing with MiG-25’s.
Next point is just a QoL thing, but the ASA in particular could be doing with a newer pilot model, the old 1950’s helmet just doesn’t look right in anything beyond the F-104A/C/G(early).
Nah I love the ASA, it’s one of my most flown jets in the game! I just meant it would be really nice to have IRCCM missiles, especially in uptiers against 12.7
Would make it comparable to the Mirage F1, IRCCM missiles, fast, MTI with okay radar missiles. Just suffers from poor RWR and an inability to manoeuvre for extended periods of time. In a 1v1 though I do love surprising people with the starfighter
Bombing needs to be fully removed as a consideration for balance/BR placement in air RB. It has nothing to do with the gamemode and doesn’t impact winning or losing. It only has to do with players unlocking things and grinding SL and gaijin not wanting players to unlock anything.
Was thinking about the RWR a while back but haven’t posted anything, from what I understand of it the real one was actually quite advanced, it just had a sub par display. It did however activate ECM gear that we simply don’t have in game (yet), as a stop gap it wouldn’t be that unreasonable to have it function as a CM slaved MAWS.
My only fear with giving it 9M’s, or similar, would be snail using it as an excuse to bump it up in BR.
True, I do hope we get ECM soon as we see more IRCM added and ARMs coming this year. Good time to expand electronic warfare, especially before 5th gens come.
As for the BR increase, if the ASA had stayed at 12.0 but had 9L/i-1 I think it honestly would’ve been fine. 11.7 is necessary rn due to the regular 9Ls, but putting it as an equal to the Mirage F1 in BR would make sense with IRCCM missiles. Really only reason 12.0 suffers so much is because of the massive compression from 12.0-14.3, if they are able to separate such vehicles a bit better then 12.0 is a great bridge between early look-down SARH aircraft and the IRCCM ARH meta at the top. You would get vehicles like the Mirage F1, F-104S ASA, and Bison building that bridge with older 3rd gen airframes but R-73/Magic 2/Aim-9L/i
Right now it’s basically you go from non-IRCCM supersonics and a small handful of IRCCM subsonics and then launched straight into 4th gens with R-73 and 9M and very good radars with late SARH and early Fox-3 that just serves to make uptiers even more brutal than normal
I hope it gets this. Would be unique being a really low rating plane to have this.